Violent Clashes between Protesters and Riot Police in the Ukrainian Capital; Massive Cyber Security Breach in the United States; Bitter Cold in the United States Can Affect Super Bowl Timing

Aired January 24, 2014 - 04:00:00 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to Friday. The week`s last edition of CNN STUDENT NEWS. My name is Carl Azuz. Our ten minutes of commercial free coverage starts in Ukraine. It`s a politically divided country. Late last year, Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovych called off a trade deal with the European Union and agreed to one with Russia instead. Protests followed by people who disagreed with the president`s decision and wanted closer ties with the European Union. The government recently passed laws limiting what protesters were allowed to do in Ukraine, and the protests turned violent. There was a truce yesterday, which brought hours of calm to an area that had been anything but. Here`s how things looked before the truce was called.

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DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This demonstration for the time being characterized more by noise than by violence, but there have been clashes overnight. One protester was shot dead, a very serious escalation in the violence.

(voice over): Fury at the turn this day has taken. "You have no right to kill him," this woman screams. In the makeshift hospital we learned that more have been killed.

(on camera): The doctors say that they had wounds to their chest, one of them shot directly in the head. We don`t know yet what - (inaudible) could have been plastic bullets. The prime minister says that the riot police are not equipped with live ammunition.

MAGNAY: Even if these crowds are brave and push back. No matter the consequences for those unlucky enough to end up in police hands.

(on camera): We are wearing all of our protective gear, not least because the protesters keep telling us, the riot policemen don`t care whether you are press or whether you are a protester. We`ve seen evidence of that ourselves. Video where a riot policeman points his gun directly into the camera and fires.

(voice over): At least 200 injured on the police side also. The anger against them and the government who have banned all protesting feels universal. Young and old brave the freezing old, landing a hand to the makeshift barricades, the makeshift weapons.

(on camera): It`s line of fire. Burning tires has formed a very effective barricade between the protesters and the riot police who are lined up on the other side. They`ve been pushing these burning fires further and further up the road, and as you can see now, they are getting their missiles ready, stones, we`ve seen them preparing and making Molotoff cocktails to throw through the smoke at police.

The battleground of the most primitive kind, but still dangerous, still deadly, nonetheless. Diana Magnay, CNN, Kiev.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Time for the "Shoutout." Who is the chief executive of a city? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it alderman, governor, councilman or mayor? You`ve got three seconds, go!

The mayor usually serves as the CEO of his or her town, village or city. That`s your answer and that`s your shoutout.

AZUZ: There`s a whole conference of mayors meeting in the U.S. capital. For the first time in years, there is a note of optimism when it comes to economies. What we are talking about here is local economies, those of cities around the U.S. The conference of mayors says this year could be the one when most U.S. cities put the great recession behind them. Economic growth is expected almost everywhere. It`s good news, not great news. Though local jobs are being created, one challenge ahead for these folks is that many cities won`t have the same level of employment they had before the recession hit. And they still won`t have it by 2018. A slow recovery, but still a recovery, one that President Obama addressed when he stopped by yesterday afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We still have got a lot of work to do to deliver a vision that we all share, which is in America if you work hard, you can make it.

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AZUZ: U.S. population is about 314 million people. More than a third of them might have had their personal information stolen within the past few months. We mean credit cards, debit cards, home and email addresses. Target says up to 110 million customers could have been affected by a massive data hack. The one we told you about from the Christmas season. Luxury department store Neiman Marcus says many of its customers were affected by a separate hack. What did the two incidents have in common? They were cyber-attacks, and they are not the only ones.

It`s kind of like playing that old game whack-a-mole. First, it was Target. The security breach that compromised the confidential information of millions of Americans. Then, we learned about Neiman Marcus, the high- end retailer disclosed it, too, had been hacked. WE are still waiting for word on how many people are affected. And now, a report from the cyber watch group Intel Crawler suggests at least six more retailers have yet to tell customers they`ve been breached as well with the same malware attacking their online credit card processing. So, the question now, where should we look next?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN STASIAK, CEO SECURESTATE: Once it`s identified, then the security community could rally around it and start to put controls in place. But the problem is that hackers know that, so they manipulate or mutate this malware and then reuse it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: According to Intel Crawler the source of the malicious software can all be traced back to one place - the report claims the very first sample of the malware was created in March of 2013, hitting stores in Australia, Canada and the United States.

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Let`s say hypothetically, a retailer has 40 million transactions, by 40 million different customers. All 40 million may have been damaged in some way, and under law, they can be joined together in a class action lawsuit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Legally, the burden is on retailers to protect customer information. But from what we know now, this could be the tip of the iceberg.

STASIAK: And was able to put that up on the Internet for download for other hackers to then take and potentially use it for malicious harm. And that`s what we believe happened to Target as well as Neiman Marcus.

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AZUZ: Hawks, Hatchets and Huskies. Today`s "Roll Call" is brought to you by the letter "H." The hawks. Should we say Seahawks? They are in Seattle, Washington. They are watching at Hamilton International Middle School. Check this out - how many mascots are named Hatchets? We bet the students of Washington high school are pretty sharp. They are in Washington, Indiana. And the huskies are hunkered down at Hagerty High School. Hello to our viewers in Oviedo, Florida.

If you`ve been hit by this winter`s particularly wicked weather, the Farmer`s Almanac can say, I told you so. It was first published in 1818. It predicts the weather months in advance, and it`s pretty darn accurate. Here`s a clip that we aired last August.

Because there was storm tracker`s super viper Doppler weather XLT, there was the Farmer`s Almanac. And though that might sound like comparing a Ferrari to a minivan, the almanac certainly has an advantage and experience. It`s also forecasting well ahead of your local weather man, saying this winter is going to be cold, piercing cold, bitterly cold, biting cold, cold in all caps. You know that thing called the Super Bowl? It`s going to be outdoors in New Jersey in February. And the Farmer`s Almanac says it`s going to be - guess what? Hit by a massive winter storm, give or take a day or two.

Well, the Super Bowl is scheduled for February, 2, give or take a day or two. The NFL says that if additional forecasts predict another major winter blast, on Super Bowl Sunday, it could become Super Bowl Friday, Saturday or Monday. It`s not likely to happen, but ten inches of snow did just fall on MetLife stadium this week. So, plans are in place to reschedule the first outdoor cold weather Super Bowl, if there`s danger to fans, players and the media.

Anyone can report on a snowball fight. CNN reporter Jason Carroll (ph) was in one after New York was hit by 11 inches of snow earlier this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Let me give you a look around here, so you can see what`s happening. (inaudible) give them a little shot here. This is what they do every single time, Anderson, there is a huge snowstorm. They end up having a snowball fight. Hundreds of students out here.

(LAUGHTER)

CARROLL: Getting pummeled. I need defense out here. Defense! Let me go to someone - (inaudible) my friends over here we`ve been talking to. Some of these guys. Now, they are going to get it.

Every year you, guys, coming out here and do this kind of thing. Get - tell me, is it worth at all? Give is a second to talk! Is it worth coming out and do .?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. It`s very cold, it`s miserable.

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AZUZ: Covering snowball fights, always kind of hit and miss, but you`ve got to admitten, it`s snow fun is you miss out. It`s a cool way to deal with the cooler situation, and that`s whether you winter loose. I`m Carl Azuz. This is CNN STUDENT NEWS wishing you a wonderful winter weekend.